Waste enclosures are important items at any location where there are people depositing or collecting waste materials, to avoid the people having to carry materials with them, and to keep areas clean of litter. Often, these enclosures are used to deposit or collect trash or various types of recyclable materials. Cities and towns typically allow waste enclosures at locations such as street corners and high traffic areas. Convenience and accessibility increase use of such containers. Many commercial entities use large waste containers, also called Dumpsters, for aggregating larger volumes of waste or recyclable materials.
Waste containers require periodic emptying, typically by sanitation or recycling personnel. This entails that personnel spend time and equipment traveling, emptying and hauling waste from container locations. Often, the collection and transport activity occurs when containers are less than full. Such travel, cost, traffic, road wear, fuel consumption and public disturbance could be avoided with more efficient collection schemes. Additionally, identity or disposal characteristics of the waste material is not typically known until the waste collector visits the waste enclosure. At such time it is difficult or inefficient to plan routing of materials to their optimal locations, or to enable the efficient disposal/selling of recyclable material to buyers. Further, efficiencies may be increased if the public is instructed in how to deposit different items such as cans, bottles, aluminum, or paper properly.
Known waste enclosures either do not employ electricity, or require AC electricity. AC electricity limits such waste enclosures to locations on the electricity grid. Other known enclosures that use stored and/or solar electricity lack energy saving aspects that allow for reduced collection frequency through real time, on-site data, or use of the powered devices in poorly lit locations, or that extend the battery life of the energy storage system to reduce cost and travel frequency. Such deficiencies limit the location of such electricity-enabled waste enclosures or make collection from the enclosure more expensive. Thus, known waste enclosures are characteristically non-powered, or they are locatable only in areas where electrical connections are feasible or where natural light is plentiful and strong.
Solar energy is a clean source of power, and it enables the use of electrical power in remote locations where other forms of power are impractical and uneconomical. Solar energy is converted to electricity by a variety of systems. Systems include photovoltaic panels or collectors (PV devices) also termed solar cells, photovoltaics, or PV cells (Herein described as solar panels). Solar energy is also converted into electricity such as by concentrating solar power, where the sun's energy is focused to heat material, which then produces electricity. Often, it is impractical and uneconomical to connect grid power to a waste delivery container located even at a relatively close distance to an electricity source, for example, across the street from a retail establishment. In addition, in many cases, it is impractical to replace or recharge batteries.
There is a need for powered waste enclosures in remote settings and high-traffic areas, and in areas of poor light conditions, that will allow people to conveniently deposit or collect waste, but that provide other information for emptying the enclosures safely and only when needed or optimal. There is also a need for subsidy of waste collection operations.